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| The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Ryszard Kapuscinski
Creator: Neal Ascherson
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy Used: £3.13
You Save: £5.86 (65%)
New (25) from £3.61
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 74706
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0141188030
EAN: 9780141188034
ASIN: 0141188030
Publication Date: June 1, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Interesting perspective August 27, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Written as a series of reminicences by former flunkies of the royal Sellasi household this book has an imaginative format. Haille Sellasi lived and breathed his privilidged life of high status as Emperor of Ethiopia, purportedly decended from Abraham no less. Reading between the lines I do not believe he was inherantly wicked and tried in his own way to rule in the regal style expected of him to the very end of his life. It may seem laughable reading of his daily routine of timetabled fawning and doling out sage advice to his attentive staff but think again - How far away are we in Great Britain from supporting a royal life style based on very similar lines to those primitive Ethiopians? Did the late Queen Mother not lift a finger all her life with an array of simpering brown nosers sucking up to every word. Fortunately our own royals had all of their political power removed some time ago otherwise Ryszard may have had a field day. This book is a concise biography of Haile Selasse but I would like to know how he became the big chief of the Rastas too and this was not mentioned in this short biography
Kings of Kings live off the blood of the people July 25, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fantastic!!This was Kapuscinski's first book to be translated into English,and the second of his I read(the first was "Another Day Of Life").
It is a sequence of reminiscence-s of Haile Selasse's court,rendered by a bunch of flunkies,hangers-on and true believers,and they are amazing.When you read one of them arguing that periodic famine is good for Ethiopians,or another saying that education is bad because it's easy to go from the habit of reading to the habit of thinking,you are shaking your head in disbelief.
The second major theme in the book is the Red Terror(the fetasha)launched by the military committee(the Dergue)taking place as Kapuscinski is in Addis Ababa researching this book.His descriptions of crazed soldiers manning jeeps and roadblocks,searching everything and not being averse to opening fire on any real or imagined enemies,is a fantastic description of life under terror.
As you finish this,remember that Kapuscinski was a citizen of a Communist dicatorship in Poland.Is this book really about Ethiopia,or is it Kapuscinski writing about terror and dictatorship in general,a thinly disguised critique of Gierek's Poland?Some Poles I've spoken to about say the former,some the latter.Judge for yourself.
A fine piece of reportage,and well up to Kapuscinski's finest standards.Beware though-if this is the first of his books that you've read,you'll end up reading all of them.Start saving now!!
A study in autocracy January 10, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have just finished reading this book - and I loved it.
I was given it as a Christmas gift; having added it to my Amazon wish list !
I first came across Ryszard Kapuscinski after reading "The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life", which I also loved. I like Kapuscinski's reportage style, but I am particularly gripped by his insight.
As for the actual book; I think that the mechanism that Kapuscinski uses for telling the story - vignettes from different individuals - is a great way of telling a story. The reader receives a variety of perspectives, which on their own may not tell the whole story, but collectively form a mossaic which gives far more detail than simple reportage could ever do.
By the end of the book, I felt that I had a pretty good impression of life in the court of Haile Selassie, but I also felt that I had a much clearer understanding of life in the court of any autocratic absolute monarch - such as King Charles I of England or the Kings Louis' of France.
Highly recommended !
How good can it get? October 28, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Kapuscinsky at his finest! As the world falls apart around Haille Selassie, Kapuscinsky documents his inexorable downfall. But, as always this is not just a documentary. This is colourful, flavoursome, deliciously ironic, bitterly sweet and, whilst inciting despair, drawing symapthy and anger at the same time. If there is one Kapuscinsky to read - make it this one.
A snapshot of a society in the midst of collapse July 27, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is one of a number of amazing works of journalism by Ryszard Kapuscinski, who covered the Third World for the Polish Press Agency until 1981.
In typical Kapuscinski style, in 1974 he went to Ethiopia in the middle of a successful coup attempt to interview servants and associates of the soon-to-be-deposed Emperor Haile Selassie to discover how he ruled and why he was overthrown. The result is a wonderfully composed text that is practically dripping with irony, regret, and even humor.
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